Is this a violation of eBay rules?

[kusanagi-sama]

I asked a question to a ebay seller, elliotness7, about if he reduces shipping when combining orders. I also told him that charging $7.00 for one DVD for media mail is about twice what is reasonable. This is his response:

[ QUOTE ]
The reason I charge so much for shipping is eBay charges a final value fee based on how much money I make. By charging more for shipping I pay less in fees. That is one of the ways I can sell these so cheap to you guys. I could charge less for shipping but the price would go up. I know I am one of the cheapest sellers of these dvd's. I have to make money somewhere. Now if you wanna pay a little less for shipping sure I will give you a discount, but I am not going to drop it drasticaly because I still have to pay for these. I will take $1.50 off each dvd you purchase 3 or more I am sorry but that is the best I can do to still be able to make a profit. Maybe someone else can sell them cheaper but I can not.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Captain Impulse]

Yes, charging too much for shipping to avoid Ebay fees IS a violation of Ebay's rules, but they aren't exactly quick to enforce any of their policies, as evidence by the rampant number of bootlegs for sale.

[Kaikou]

Yes, but it's usually only enforceable when the seller openly admits he is overcharging on shipping in order to cover Ebay fees. You can report him to Ebay and forward the e-mail to them. They will most likely either cancel his auctions or inform him of their rules. Not that doing any of this will benefit you in any way.

[Captain Impulse]

It's not like he's doing you any favors anyway. He might be able to save a few cents by having a lower buyout price, but those "savings" are negligible. Unless the buyout + shipping is SIGNIFICANTLY lower than any other total from any other seller (hardly likely, since he's not saving all that much by having a lower buyout), I'd move along. I don't like giving money to people who can't play by the rules.

You'll see the same sort of behavior from the Chinese bootleggers too; they'll have a bootleg set of some massive series (One Piece, Sailor Moon, Naruto, etc), sometimes as cheap as a $0.01 buyout price, and (of course) the shipping will be upwards of $59.99 or more.

Behavior like that is what causes the listing fees/Ebay's cut to increase. Don't support it if you can help it.

[something]

Most likely, but also standard practice for as long as eBay has existed. They've expressed interest in going after such people but I don't know that they have done anything yet. Only the most flagrant violations are being looked at now, I think, and computer related items tend to be worse in that aspect than DVDs even.

[Captain Impulse]

Well, all we can really do is report bootleggers' listings in the meantime, I guess. I know I've had one user's account shut down from reporting his bootlegging ass numerous times.

[Iridium]

[ QUOTE ]
Captain Impulse said:
Yes, charging too much for shipping to avoid Ebay fees IS a violation of Ebay's rules, but they aren't exactly quick to enforce any of their policies, as evidence by the rampant number of bootlegs for sale.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think the real issue is that eBay's fees are simply too high. If they were more reasonable, fewer people would be avoiding fees by lumping the price into the shipping cost.

[Captain Impulse]

[ QUOTE ]
Iridium said:
[ QUOTE ]
Captain Impulse said:
Yes, charging too much for shipping to avoid Ebay fees IS a violation of Ebay's rules, but they aren't exactly quick to enforce any of their policies, as evidence by the rampant number of bootlegs for sale.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think the real issue is that eBay's fees are simply too high. If they were more reasonable, fewer people would be avoiding fees by lumping the price into the shipping cost.

[/ QUOTE ]

True. Even if Ebay charged only $0.25 per listing, I'm sure they'd still be raking in the cash, even with their (probably) ridiculous bandwidth bill.

[Trey-Trey]

His whole response falls under "surcharges" which is a violation of eBay rules. Report it and piss him off.

[KevinTRod]

[ QUOTE ]
Iridium said:
[ QUOTE ]
Captain Impulse said:
Yes, charging too much for shipping to avoid Ebay fees IS a violation of Ebay's rules, but they aren't exactly quick to enforce any of their policies, as evidence by the rampant number of bootlegs for sale.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think the real issue is that eBay's fees are simply too high. If they were more reasonable, fewer people would be avoiding fees by lumping the price into the shipping cost.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, eBay's fee's may be high, but let's face it: To sell a DVD for $9.99 would cost you $0.35 cents. All you'd need to do is charge $4.00 for shipping instead of $3.00 and you've got the fee covered.

[Japschin]

It's not just $0.35. There're still ebay final fee and paypal fees.

[Puppet Master]

[ QUOTE ]
Kame said:
It's not just $0.35. There're still ebay final fee and paypal fees.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup I don't know where the final value fees info is on E-Bay but I did find the paypal thing s here for those unfamiliar with it. https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-fees-outside

[KevinTRod]

[ QUOTE ]
Puppet Master said:
[ QUOTE ]
Kame said:
It's not just $0.35. There're still ebay final fee and paypal fees.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup I don't know where the final value fees info is on E-Bay but I did find the paypal thing s here for those unfamiliar with it. https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-fees-outside

[/ QUOTE ]

What's the final fee? I know there's a PayPal fee, but aside from the e5 cents it cost me to post the item I haven't payed for any other fee for any of my items I've sold.

[Kaikou]

[ QUOTE ]
Kevin T. Rodriguez said:
[ QUOTE ]
Puppet Master said:
[ QUOTE ]
Kame said:
It's not just $0.35. There're still ebay final fee and paypal fees.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup I don't know where the final value fees info is on E-Bay but I did find the paypal thing s here for those unfamiliar with it. https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-fees-outside

[/ QUOTE ]

What's the final fee? I know there's a PayPal fee, but aside from the e5 cents it cost me to post the item I haven't payed for any other fee for any of my items I've sold.

[/ QUOTE ]

Your mistaken, all items are subject to a final value fee.(unless your item didn't sell) For a $9.99 auction I paid 52 cents final value fee, so Ebay's final value fee is about ~5%. I think the final value fee goes down as the final value of the auction goes up.

Example being a $182.50 auction that I paid $6.04 final value fee.

Edit:

Found the information on Ebay.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html

[KevinTRod]

[ QUOTE ]
Smashingblue said:
[ QUOTE ]
Kevin T. Rodriguez said:
[ QUOTE ]
Puppet Master said:
[ QUOTE ]
Kame said:
It's not just $0.35. There're still ebay final fee and paypal fees.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup I don't know where the final value fees info is on E-Bay but I did find the paypal thing s here for those unfamiliar with it. https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-fees-outside

[/ QUOTE ]

What's the final fee? I know there's a PayPal fee, but aside from the e5 cents it cost me to post the item I haven't payed for any other fee for any of my items I've sold.

[/ QUOTE ]

Your mistaken, all items are subject to a final value fee.(unless your item didn't sell) For a $9.99 auction I paid 52 cents final value fee, so Ebay's final value fee is about ~5%. I think the final value fee goes down as the final value of the auction goes up.

Example being a $182.50 auction that I paid $6.04 final value fee.

Edit:

Found the information on Ebay.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html

[/ QUOTE ]

*looks at online account* Holy crap, you're right! How long has THIS been going on?! I guess this solves the mystery of why my eBay bill would seem more expensive then it should have been. But darn it, now that I look at all the fee's for the autographed Kare Kano book I sold (for $201.99), eBay and PayPal took away $18.85 from me. Okay, so I DID sell the book for over $200.00, so it's hard to complain too much, but still...

[Elana]

[ QUOTE ]
Kevin T. Rodriguez said:
[ QUOTE ]
Smashingblue said:
[ QUOTE ]
Kevin T. Rodriguez said:
[ QUOTE ]
Puppet Master said:
[ QUOTE ]
Kame said:
It's not just $0.35. There're still ebay final fee and paypal fees.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup I don't know where the final value fees info is on E-Bay but I did find the paypal thing s here for those unfamiliar with it. https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-fees-outside

[/ QUOTE ]

What's the final fee? I know there's a PayPal fee, but aside from the e5 cents it cost me to post the item I haven't payed for any other fee for any of my items I've sold.

[/ QUOTE ]

Your mistaken, all items are subject to a final value fee.(unless your item didn't sell) For a $9.99 auction I paid 52 cents final value fee, so Ebay's final value fee is about ~5%. I think the final value fee goes down as the final value of the auction goes up.

Example being a $182.50 auction that I paid $6.04 final value fee.

Edit:

Found the information on Ebay.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html

[/ QUOTE ]

*looks at online account* Holy crap, you're right! How long has THIS been going on?! I guess this solves the mystery of why my eBay bill would seem more expensive then it should have been. But darn it, now that I look at all the fee's for the autographed Kare Kano book I sold (for $201.99), eBay and PayPal took away $18.85 from me. Okay, so I DID sell the book for over $200.00, so it's hard to complain too much, but still...

[/ QUOTE ]

FVFs have been around as long as I can remember. At LEAST 5 or 6 years.

[crion]

[ QUOTE ]
Elana said:
FVFs have been around as long as I can remember. At LEAST 5 or 6 years.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've been with e-bay for about 10 years and these fees have been around all that time.

[rainking187]

[ QUOTE ]
Kevin T. Rodriguez said:
[ QUOTE ]
Smashingblue said:
[ QUOTE ]
Kevin T. Rodriguez said:
[ QUOTE ]
Puppet Master said:
[ QUOTE ]
Kame said:
It's not just $0.35. There're still ebay final fee and paypal fees.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup I don't know where the final value fees info is on E-Bay but I did find the paypal thing s here for those unfamiliar with it. https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-fees-outside

[/ QUOTE ]

What's the final fee? I know there's a PayPal fee, but aside from the e5 cents it cost me to post the item I haven't payed for any other fee for any of my items I've sold.

[/ QUOTE ]

Your mistaken, all items are subject to a final value fee.(unless your item didn't sell) For a $9.99 auction I paid 52 cents final value fee, so Ebay's final value fee is about ~5%. I think the final value fee goes down as the final value of the auction goes up.

Example being a $182.50 auction that I paid $6.04 final value fee.

Edit:

Found the information on Ebay.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html

[/ QUOTE ]

*looks at online account* Holy crap, you're right! How long has THIS been going on?! I guess this solves the mystery of why my eBay bill would seem more expensive then it should have been. But darn it, now that I look at all the fee's for the autographed Kare Kano book I sold (for $201.99), eBay and PayPal took away $18.85 from me. Okay, so I DID sell the book for over $200.00, so it's hard to complain too much, but still...

[/ QUOTE ]

It does seem like quite a rip off to me, if you place an ad in the newspaper selling something, you have to pay some money, but if the item sells you don't have to then go back and give them a cut of your profits.

[kusanagi-sama]

Why would the FVF be a ripoff? Regular auctioneers get a cut of the final bid price, so why is eBay any different?

[Japschin]

Regular auctioneers charge you one time, unless you have antiques worth millions to be auctioned off in private auctions. However, Ebay charges you 3 times, listing, FVF and Paypal.
I havn't been selling on Ebay for the last 3 months. Main reason is, Ebay started not returning the difference when I lower the starting price. Used to return the difference when you lower your starting price to the lower leve, eg. paid $4.80 to list initially, then decided to lower the price so that I only pay $2.40 for listing it. Ebay used to credit me the $2.40 difference but now they swallow it.
CS rep was rude like hell when I first asked about it since it was the first time it happened. "It's not our problem if you decided to lower your price. What's paid is paid." When I asked about how come they used to refund and now they stopped that without any notification. "The company need not email everyone about the change of policy. We used to credit but not now. We will not refund any difference from now on."
Gee....really dissed me off. /images/graemlins/anger100.gif /images/graemlins/anger200.gif